How Animals See the World

Comparative Behavior, Biology, and Evolution of Vision

Edited by Olga F. Lazareva, Toru Shimizu, and Edward A. Wasserman

A multidisciplinary text written by an international group of researchers/contributors

Builds bridges across the disciplines of neuroscience, cognitive science, and behavioral science

Discusses the perception of a wide variety of species including insects, spiders, fish, birds, and primates

A valuable resource for advanced students and researchers in cognitive psychology, perception and cognitive neuroscience, as well as researchers in the visual sciences

How Animals See the World

Comparative Behavior, Biology, and Evolution of Vision

Edited by Olga F. Lazareva, Toru Shimizu, and Edward A. Wasserman

Description

The visual world of animals is highly diverse and often very different from the world that we humans take for granted. This book provides an extensive review of the latest behavioral and neurobiological research on animal vision, highlighting fascinating species similarities and differences in visual processing. It contains 26 chapters written by world-leading experts about a variety of species including: honeybees, spiders, fish, birds, and primates. The chapters are divided into six sections: Perceptual grouping and segmentation, Object perception and object recognition, Motion perception, Visual attention, Different dimensions of visual perception, and Evolution of the visual system. An exhaustive work in range and depth, How Animals See the World will be a valuable resource for advanced students and researchers in areas of cognitive psychology, perception and cognitive neuroscience, as well as researchers in the visual sciences.

Chapter 25: Development of the visual system in birds and mammalsHans-Joachim Bischof

Chapter 26: Brain asymmetry in vertebratesOnur Güntürkün

Postscript: Shaun Vecera

Index

How Animals See the World

Comparative Behavior, Biology, and Evolution of Vision

Edited by Olga F. Lazareva, Toru Shimizu, and Edward A. Wasserman

Author Information

Olga F. Lazareva is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Drake University. Her research concentrates on behavioral and neurobiological aspects of visual perception and relational learning in humans and nonhuman animals.

Toru Shimizu is Professor of Psychology at the University of South Florida. His areas of research include the neural basis of vision and cognition in animals.

Edward A. Wasserman is Dewey B. and Velma P. Stuit Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Iowa and coeditor with Thomas Zentall of Comparative Cognition: Experimental Explorations of Animal Intelligence (Oxford University Press, 2006). He is a member of the Delta Center at the University of Iowa, dedicated to the investigation of learning, development, and change. Wasserman's research has centered on learning, memory, cognition, and perception in humans and nonhuman animals.

How Animals See the World

Comparative Behavior, Biology, and Evolution of Vision

Edited by Olga F. Lazareva, Toru Shimizu, and Edward A. Wasserman

Reviews and Awards

"This is a serious book covering a complicated but fascinating topic. I recommend it for the serious reader, whether researcher, teacher, or student, who wants to know more about how animals see the world in all of the ways that seeing can be defined. This is a book that would certainly merit a spot on the bookshelf of comparative and evolutionary psychologists as well as behavioral and evolutionary biologists, as there is much in here to appreciate for each of these groups." -- Michael J. Beran, PsycCRITIQUES

"This deep yet fascinating book is not quite what it seems from the title. Rather than "How Animals See the World," it should be "Visual Psychophysics of Birds and Primates." Ninety-eight percent of animals are invertebrates, and 85 percent of habitable space is aquatic; both are little represented here, though the salticid spiders and honeybees make an interesting contrast to vertebrate vision... The final section, on evolution of the vertebrate visual system's structures and basic physiology, belongs first as a foundation. Nevertheless, the book is fascinating reading for the specialist in perception and the cognitive neuroscientist, though not the beginner. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and researchers/faculty." -- J. A. Mather, University of Lethbridge, CHOICE